Marriage Metaphors, with Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum is clearly no fan of marriage equality, and he is making sure to educate others about this topic. The former Pennsylvania senator started by linking marriage equality to incest, and he's been on a roll ever since. As Santorum climbs aboard the Values Bus this week in conjunction with the National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council Action's Faith Family Freedom Fund, and the Susan B. Anthony List to rally conservative voters, we take a look at some of his more provocative comparisons concerning marriage equality and gay rights.

Comparing the abolition of slavery to marriage in New York:
"In Lincoln's time the political debate was over the foundationally immoral institution of slavery. Lincoln rightly criticized Stephen Douglas' 'don't care' attitude about that great moral issue this way: 'When Judge Douglas says that whoever or whatever community wants slaves, they have a right to have them, he is perfectly logical, if there is nothing wrong in the institution; but if you admit that it is wrong, he cannot logically say that anybody has a right to do wrong...Using Douglas' rationale today, we subject the definition of marriage to 50 different versions and that leads to settling of the conflict by the U.S. Supreme Court. This is precisely the same road that led to the downgrading of human life with abortion laws...We simply cannot allow this to happen to marriage too. Traditional marriage is one man and one woman, and it has been the essential building block of every truly free, fruitful, and lasting society."
- An op-ed on RickSantorum.com in August 2011

Comparing marriage equality to beer versus water
"It's like saying this glass of water is a glass of beer. Well, you can call it a glass of beer, but it's not a glass of beer. It's a glass of water. And water is what water is. Marriage is what marriage is."
- C-SPAN, August 10, 2011

Comparing marriage equality to paper napkins versus paper towels
"This is a napkin [picks up a napkin]. I can call this napkin a paper towel. But it is a napkin. And why? Because it is what it is. Right? You can call it whatever you want, but it doesn't change the character of what it is. So when people come out and say that marriage is something else -- marriage is the marriage of five people, five, 10, 20. Marriage can be between fathers and daughters. Marriage can be between any two people, any four people, any 10 people, it can be any kind of relationship and we can call it marriage. But it doesn't make it marriage. Why? Because there are certain qualities and certain things that attach to the definition of what marriage is."

- San Francisco Chronicle, August 9, 2011

"Calling same-sex marriage a marriage would be like calling a cup of tea a basketball."

-On the campaign trail in August 2011

Comparing marriage equality to statutory rape and bestiality
"Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."
- The Associated Press, April 7, 2003

Comparing congressional debates on marriage equality to terrorism
"This is an issue just like 9-11. We didn't decide we wanted to fight the war on terrorism because we wanted to. It was brought to us. And if not now, when? When the supreme courts in all the other states have succumbed to the Massachusetts version of the law?"
- The Morning Call, February 25, 2004

Comparing marriage equality to incest
"Is anyone saying same-sex couples can't love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage too? Marriage is and always has been more than the acknowledgment of the love between two people."
- Think Progress,May 22, 2008